Black Love
Nuanced, intimate conversations about Black relationships.
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Black Love
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Black Love is a series about Black couples sharing their love stories. The language used here doesn't get worse than the occasional "hell" or "damn", but as these are adult couples in romantic relationships, they discuss their sex lives and various related issues. There are references to drug and alcohol use and abuse. Things can get heavy when couples discuss hard times marred by infant loss, illness, and death.
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What's the Story?
BLACK LOVE features couples (at least one of whom -- but most often, both -- is Black) in their own homes, discussing the ups and downs of their love stories in a down-to-earth conversational format. Episodes focus on various topics from conflict resolution and learning to communicate effectively to the pain of infidelity and how to handle finance and major life decisions as a team.
Is It Any Good?
As this is currently the only non-scripted TV show centered specifically on the Black romantic experience on the air, this is definitely a one-of-a-kind program. Sure, certain reality shows might prominently feature black couples, but those tend to focus on manufacturing salacious dramas and creating clickbait, whereas Black Love offers an intimate, nuanced look at relationships and a casual format that feels like you're talking to your new best friends.
No matter your own relationship status, it's easy to get sucked into these wide-ranging conversations as the couples explore how their love stories came about and the work they've put in to keep them going. It's not all pie-in-the-sky mushy talk, either -- these couples dig deep and cover tough subjects like dealing with infertility and miscarriage and healing from childhood trauma in order to be the best partner they can be. It's quite a thing to see this kind of representation on the air at last, and the only thing that would make it better is if the creators expand their worldview a bit (which they're reportedly working on) to include more same-sex and nontraditional couples in the mix. As Black Love shows us, no two couples are the same, so the more points of view that are represented, the merrier.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what it takes to make a relationship work. Why is communication so important? How do these couples demonstrate good communication skills?
The couples on Black Love are extremely open about their lives. Would you ever want to talk about your life on a TV show? Why or why not? What would you discuss?
TV Details
- Premiere date: August 26, 2017
- Cast: Viola Davis, Sterling K. Brown, Terry Crews, Tia Mowry-Hardrict
- Network: OWN
- Genre: Reality TV
- TV rating: TV-14
- Last updated: October 13, 2022
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